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Poetry and Short stories at its finest

A tale of Two…(ATOT) … ep 4

” i pointed out to you the stars and all you saw was the tip of my fingers”

For Jenny…

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It’s been nine months since Tim did what he did. Her time away aboard all nine months, did nothing to heal her Stead, she reels just as much today as on the day it happened. With a bowl of Fruits and fibre soaked in milk in hand as dinner, she caught a keke napep ride down memory’s bumpy lane, one that she seldom did.

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Tim and Isabela shoulder bumped into a meet some 12months back. The action sent bela’s bag swiftly to the floor of the shopping mall while Tim’s tablet told cracking tales as it hit the group. She picked up her bag after her recovery and started out with an apology heavily laddened with embarrassment as Tim picked up what was his. It had been her fault. She wasn’t looking where she was headed as she was trying to locate the store she had left her friend, Ngozi in before heading for the lady’s. So her neck, head,eyes and hair were pretty much under some strain, turning here,there,here again and over there. Tim on the other hand, spotted the head twirls and whom it belonged to just seconds before and his attempt to avoid her led to the shoulder bump, else it would have been worse. Tim recognized her embarrassment and said don’t stress. It needed to switch up its look anyways’ referring to the cracked tablet. That got a timid toothless smile out of her. She offered to fix it but he refused. They haggled fixing the tablet for all of five minutes on that spot.‎It was only brought to a halt when bela got a call from Ngozi telling where exactly she was,for a meet up. She apologized again after the call had ended and took Tim’s number insisting she would pay for the tablet’s repair. With this,they both went in their separate directions. Getting to where Ngozi was, she narrated her ordeal, not the least bit feeling good about her clumsiness. A day later, bela called Tim for a meet. The plan was to get him down to the repair shop and somehow make good on her words. Tim showed up but with a good as new tablet. Double the embarrassment,bela felt totally awful. Sensing this, Tim offered to buy her a drink to make her feel better, and that was how it started.

He was as sweet and charming as she had imagined “the perfect guy” should be, He wasn’t classically handsome but the little he lost in looks, he made up for in charisma, the way he walked, the way he carried himself, the drool in his voice and the calmness with which he made her feel so self cautious. She caught herself trying to avoid his looks as he held her eyes while the sat at the café. She never saw herself as someone who was shy, she was always the one making people squirm, not to be proud but she’s been told by guys and girls alike that she was drop-dead gorgeous and she had met very good looking guys and turned down better looking guys without a second thought but she could not feel the electrifying gaze she expected from everyone, he made her feel just like every normal girl, She could not feel his eyes devouring her, and yet she felt captured by his presence. There is something to be said about being wanted by everyone, but here she was in all her finery and yet He just treated her like she was a 6 *eyes role* she considers herself a 9 at her worst, and now she was getting pissed off with all the thought running through her head over a total stranger… “ you’ve got very pretty eyes” tim said bringing her back to the present, “ yeah, thanks” bela replied too quickly and too harshly. This was the second date, forced on her after her ill fated attempt to pay the bill for the spoilt tablet, the first was akward and she only said yes to this because she felt she at least owed him that, guilty conscience and all. The disaster of the first meet was over and the second date was on; softened by how sweet and nice he was calling to make sure she got home early, not hitting on her at all and generally treating her like a human being and not a piece of “ass”, and here he was complimenting the only feature she wasn’t really proud of, Her eyes, quite big but she was always felt insecure about them. Maybe she was just being silly or he was just trying to mock her. Maybe he is gay she told herself and felt better after that. She decided there and then to be nice and get this over with. “so tell me about yourself” bela asked as she took a sip of her drink “ what about me exactly would you want to know?” he responded “anything you’re comfortable sharing would be nice” she replied. Tim looked at her for a moment as if to get his thoughts together, he was skeptical about how to play this, she looked like someone who wasn’t insecure, had boys at her beck and call and the only way to impress her was to be as different as he could. He had slept with some beauties but this right here was an eternal bragging right, he could already envision taking her to different places and being the cynosure of all eyes, the high fives from his boys as they sang his praises, how he’d bed her and brag about it, how much it would massage his ego, how soft her skin would feel to his touch, her lips, those pecky boobs that was still firm… to him this was not just another conquest, this was the conquest, who would have imagined that the shy insecure kid would grow up to be a “ the guy” other guys envied, and he had been thinking of her all week, from the first “accident”, the second date/awkwardness and now he had every plan to see this through. So game on, ”well I am an only child, single mum, dad had better things to do the minute he knew mum was pregnant, couldn’t even wait to see how I’d turn out to be, normal childhood, we weren’t rich but mum made sure I never lacked, my grandparents helped out a lot so mum could work as she never remarried, she had me quite late so I guess she wasn’t ready to put up with another “lying cheating bastard”, she was my world until I turned 22 and cancer took her away from me” this completely caught bela off guard and she felt like a jerk all of a sudden “I am so sorry” she blurted out, tim could see for an instance she wanted to empathize and though this was a part of him he rarely talked about, he knew something real was his only chance, she obviously had heard all the bullshit boys had to spew to get into her pants, silently he asked for his dead mums forgiveness. “thanks , but that was a while back. So how about you, tell me something nice about yourself” and so bela talked, about her childhood, her dreams, her education, everything she could think off, she laughed easily at his jokes, asked questions and he responded and told her more about himself. Bela saw no need for her to keep her guard up, how could she when he had been so open with her, she found him very easy to talk to and for a moment Tim was himself, he felt something real and pure. They talked till they were the only ones left in the café and he offered to drive her home. When they got to the front of the apartment, bela said, “thanks for a wonderful evening, I really enjoyed myself” “ me too, I hope we can do this some other time, I really enjoyed your company” as she was about to get down from the car she hesitated and looked back at him, she didn’t know how to put this but she just couldn’t let it go “ ever tried looking for your dad?” “ always asked mum, but she thought it was best I didn’t know cause she knew I’d try to find him, I tried for a while and gave up and now, I honestly don t give a fuck about him anymore” for the first time that day, bela could see a flash of emotion in his eyes as it grew steely with hatred for a split second, and as quickly as it had come it disappeared again, he smiled at her and as they said there goodbyes. Bela walked into her apartment and was scared to look back as he drove into the night. She had a lot on her mind and she figured so did he.

#POET_X #TYHILLZ

if you missed the previous episode you can read it here here. sorry for the wait.